Wednesday 16 May 2012 15.48 EDT
First published on Wednesday 16 May 2012 15.48 EDT

Shortly after midday on Wednesday, one of the local authority workers caught up in the often bitter hostilities between Brent council and those fighting to save Kensal Rise library took it upon themselves to lighten the mood a little.

And so it was that a poster showing the bright yellow visage of Mr Happy of the Mr Men came to be mischievously affixed to the library window for the benefit of the protesters outside.

But some of those on the other side of the glass – many of whom had been there since 7.30am when the council lorries rolled up to clear the library of its books – were less than pleased by the appearance of Mr Happy's beaming face.

"Have they not got a Mr Twat poster?" wondered one campaigner to much righteous laughter.

Similar guffaws had erupted a few moments earlier when the library's burglar alarm went off. "It's too late," deadpanned one protester. "The burglars are already in there."

But despite the jokes, the civilised trays of teas and the good-natured banter with police, the mood outside the north-west London library was one of anger and incredulity.

Eighteen months after Brent council announced plans to shut six libraries in the borough, including Kensal Rise, and three months after the supreme court decided that no further appeal would be heard against the council's decision, many campaigners were struggling to come to terms with the notion that the last books were on the verge of leaving the premises, rendering the imposing Victorian building, quite unequivocally, an ex-library.

"It's absolutely cruel and unjust," said local resident Jodi Gramigni.

She accused the council of ignoring a business plan that had been submitted by the campaigners which would have seen the community take over the library and run it as a volunteer facility at no cost to the taxpayer.

If austerity cuts are forcing the council to make savings, she added, then they should welcome such community involvement.

"It's a shambles how this council disregards their own citizens," she said. "They could gift it to us with just a stroke of the hand and we would take all of the costs and try to run it for the community, for the children and for the elderly – and they have denied us this."

Brent council, whose workers were shown clemency by the campaigners and allowed out to fetch their lunch from the nearby Lebanese fish and chip shop, said the library's future was out of its hands as the building had legally reverted to its original landlords, All Souls College, Oxford.

"We are removing council property so that All Souls can take vacant possession and decided what they want to do with the building," it said in a statement. "The books and other materials will be sorted and distributed amongst the council's other libraries."

They point to a letter received in March from the Oxford college, which says that All Souls "would be happy to consider the library being kept open" as proposed in their business plan.

Richard Cross, a lawyer and campaigner, accused the council of "needlessly destructive" behaviour.

He said that the decision to try to remove the books showed that the outgoing Brent council leader, Ann John, was using her last day in office to conduct a "vendetta" against those who had opposed her plans to shut libraries.

"We are defending the library and we are not going to be moral inferiors to the Victorians who created this library 111 years ago," he said. "We are going to campaign and fight and save the library. This is not the end."

And so it proved.

After a police inspector had arrived to assess the situation, a protester had settled down on the low wall outside the library with a copy of JG Farrell's The Siege of Krishnapur, and frantic calls had been made to Brent council' soon-to-be-sworn-in new leader, Muhammed Butt, rumours began to spread of yet another stay of execution.

Finally, at three o'clock, the council workers began to emerge, empty-handed, from the building.

A few minutes later, the two hired lorries that had been parked outside the library since the early morning pulled away to cheers from the demonstrators.

Although a council spokeswoman confirmed that Brent had abandoned its plans to remove the books for the day, she said the situation would be revisited following consultation with the police.

A peek through the library window suggested that the next attempt to clear the building may happen sooner rather than later: on a table near the piled cardboard boxes of books, the council workers had left their tea station prepared for another go, kettle, sugar and all.

The novelist Tim Lott, who along with Zadie Smith, Philip Pullman and Alan Bennett has been an outspoken defender of Kensal Rise library, said that Brent's actions had created "a ridiculous situation that simply has no logic to it".

Standing outside the library, which was opened by Mark Twain in 1900, Lott shook his head.

"I can't make sense of it or understand why Brent are acting in such a bloody-minded way," he said.

"It shows a hatred of the big community and the big society. It's a completely irrational situation where everyone is a loser and it's very sad. It's a victory for ignorance."

Lott also warned of dire consequences if the campaigners eventually found themselves unable to save their library.

"[It would] take the wind out of a lot of people's sails," he said. "It's a blow for literacy and the end of a fine Victorian tradition."

• This article was amended on 21 May 2012 because Jodi Gramigni's forename was misspelt as Jodie. This has been corrected.